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 Grover La Reserve 2014 has won a GOLD MEDAL. GZL also won two more medals-Silvers for Zampa Soiree Brut and the Vijay Amritraj Reserve Selection Red. Charosa Vineyards did very well also, bagging 2 Silver medals- for Charosa Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2015 and the Charosa Selection Viognier 2015.
Amrut Single Malt Indian Whiskey 46% from Amrut Distilleries in Bangalore has also won the coveted Gold Medal in the spirits category.
About 700 wines and spirits participated. A total of 175 medals – including 10 Grand Prizes, 60 Gold Medals and 105 Silver Medals have been awarded.
 The Conference and the Competition was the initiative of Vinopres of Belgium, which has held scores of international competitions including Concours Mundial Bruxelles held in different countries every year. Says Baudouin Havaux, publisher of Vinopres and owner of the Competition, ‘we were approached by the provincial government of Fangshan to conduct an international competition in Fangshan (FunHill), giving an opportunity to promote Chinese wines by including as many of them as possible during the competition.’ China has won 7 Grand Prizes (the top medal), 42 Gold Medals and 82 Silvers showing the strides made by Chinese wines in the last few years.
Although a vast majority of judge were veterans from Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, there was more than a sprinkling of Masters of Wine who not only judged the competition but also participated in various conferences over 2 days- Pedro Ballesteros MW (who I call affectionately as Pedro-the Pied Piper because of his simple demeanour which helps him ‘collect’ MWs and non MWs with amazing success) had managed to get several-including Sara Evens Jones MW, Jeannie Cho Lee, Caro Maurer  and our very own solitaire, Sonal Holland, the most recent member of the Institute of Master of Wine. She was also invited to judge at the wine competition.
Other members of the delegation besides, Sonal and Subhash Arora from the Indian wines and spirits industry were Rojita Tiwari, Rajeev Samant (Sula), Sumedh Singh Mandla (Grover Zampa), Kailash Gurnani (York) and Ashok Chokalingam (Amrut) and Ahmad Rahimtoola (Allied Blenders Ltd.)
There were 3 levels of Awards- Silver, Gold and Grand Prize. The judges and other delegates were given truly a State–like reception wherever they went. Besides visits to wineries and the famous Summer Palace in Beijing, there were several seminars on October 11-12, some of which will be covered separately in the future issues of delWine.
Besides Baudouin Havaux, the credit goes to Marc Vanel and Thierry Heins. As at the Concours Mondial Bruxelles, Thomas Costenoble was the Competition Director. Here is the final Medal Talley:
For the earlier Article announcing the Award for KRSMA, please visit:
KRSMA wins First Gold Medal for India
Subhash Arora
For the complete List of Awards, click here |